The Influencer’s Hack: The Fine Line Between Talent & Personality
A day in the life of a writer-influencer:
5:30 AM: The alarm has gone off and I have promised to not see my phone the first thing in the morning; it interferes with clarity, distracts with ideas that are not my own, and wastes precious cognitive cells one wakes up with. (Note: write a blog post on about this).
6:30 AM: I have wrapped up my light exercise and meditation (note: write a Twitter thread about the benefits) and brewed a wonderful cup of coffee (it’s amazing how coffee/tea is integral to writing — explore and write about this).
6.35 AM: I am at my desk and will now use this time to read through my notes. (Note-taking is so important. Note: write about this)
8:30 AM: 2 hours. 1000 words in. It doesn’t matter what garbage I have written; it is important to practice. (Write about the importance of consistency in writing)
9:30 AM: Time to internet and post about the quick epiphanies I’ve had this morning. Also, must pitch to Grammarly about my daily epiphanies series posts. Their renewal is due.
10:30 AM: What! <insert competitor’s name> is doing a podcast now? This culture of spoon-feeding the audience is exactly what we don’t need. Whatever happened to reading words? Assimilating and pondering upon them? Ugh. (Note: write a long Medium article about this)
11:00 AM: Time to finish client work, make a quick lunch, and check-in with the nanny for Kayra. This balance is so critical. (write about this)/ (tweet/gram/LinkedIn about this writer-parent dynamic and post a picture with Kayra and laptop, keep the background a little messy. Post caption: With my baby and Kayra *grin*)
12:00 PM: 188 retweets. 499 Insta-comments. Score!
*the day passes with client work, more epiphany driven tweets and grams and LinkedIn posts, and more notes*
7:00 PM: Must put Kayra to bed. It is my turn to make dinner. Gosh, the balance!
8:00 PM: Call with Grammarly. They loved my Epiphany series pitch but have asked me to structure and organize it a little better. The probe is to explore new formats.
9:00 PM: I should get back to writing the book which is due in 4 months. I am still thinking about the call with Grammarly. Should I do a podcast on this?
This day can draw a parallel with influencers across industries.
Influencers, in case you didn’t know, are regular people who have, through online media, created a brigade of followers and now use this as leverage to collaborate with brands to promote products and services. They exist in spaces across mass categories from foods, lifestyle, make-up, fitness, fashion, writing, finance, people management to spirituality and even religion. Niche categories like vegans, coffee lovers, pet-owners, spa-goers, bikers or Buddhists are a whole different influencer proposition in themselves.
These influencers are talented in their fields but most importantly they have recognized that their personality is worth capitalizing on and are masters at personal branding.
They are popular because people like to be introduced to new ideas in a relatable way. Influencers connect with their audience as commoners and hence create a deeper, honest association; the one the viewers find worthy of emulation.
After steadily replacing the culture of celebrity endorsements since 2010, influencer marketing now pegged to be a $20b industry in India. This is now larger as the pandemic has led to cuts in traditional advertising, making homemade brand videos, not just logistically possible but also extremely lucrative.
But we are not here today to talk about the fruitfulness of influencer marketing. We are here to understand what is it that makes an influencer thrive.
We know that industry knowledge, consistency in posting, adopting a relatable tone of voice, generating interesting topics, great aesthetics and greater design, and the constant updation of consumption trends are the imperatives of becoming a successful influencer.
But these are just tactics. What is the quality?
What is at the core of this personal branding that is applicable to every influencer from Kayla Itsines to David Perell to Lilly Singh to Kusha Kapila to Jay Shetty?
And, my guess is, it is not pure talent.
The most important thing to be a successful influencer is the ability to be “shameless”.
Let me explain.
This shamelessness consists of three important parameters:
- allowing the world to see an image of you
- not being concerned with judgments and
- most importantly, the guts to leave behind privacy and private deliberations and in fact, monetize them
Talent requires an audience but going mass is often met with hesitation. There are various forms of this hesitation, such as the fear of coming across as someone who is too forthright or lacks humility. But this fear is non-existent in an influencer.
They keep getting more and more comfortable with sharing what’s inside their minds, life, relationships, and even house. Thus, increasing their relatability quotient. This isn’t for everyone. This acceptance of baring your every movement so regularly.
There are of course scams and shams but not sure if it is years of media consumption or evolution, but consumers can spot the inauthentic.
If there is anything to learn, it is how to wipe the fine line between talent and your own personality. Talent goes only this far.
If you have a personality worth leveraging get out of your comfort zone. I mean, despite the genius tweets you are still at 388 followers, 4 likes, and 1 retweet at best.
Disclaimer for the primitive minds: I do not mean this is the only way to succeed in life or that your talents, in general, are wasted. This was to make you look at these personalities in a different light or to stir something in someone who is sitting on the fence.
As they say, don’t @ me.
